The Children of Húrin was released on April 17th of 2007. The book is the culmination of 12 years of development work by Christopher Tolkien. Working on unfinished material written by his father, he has pieced together a single narrative with minimal editorial presence. It includes 8 new color plates and 25 new black and white illustrations by Alan Lee.

The Children of Húrin was first announced on September 18th, 2006. It was published on April 16, 2007 by Houghton Mifflin in the United States, and HarperCollins in the UK / Canada.

A HarperCollins Deluxe edition was simultaneously released with the hardback edition.

A Houghton Mifflin Deluxe edition was released a month later, on May 16, 2007. A second impression has already been made as the first 10,00 books sold out before the original release date of Apr. 16th, 2007. A third impression is also underway.

Houghton Mifflin has increased its printing run from 250,000 up to 625,000.

HarperCollins increased its printing run from 250,000 to a total of 360,000

The Children of Húrin became the #1 Bestseller on the NYTimes Top Ten List (Fiction - Hardcover) for the week of May 6, 2007.

Houghton Mifflin has acquired US rights to publish the first complete book by J.R.R. Tolkien since the posthumous Silmarillion in 1977. HarperCollins UK acquired the project from The Tolkien Estate in a world rights deal. Presented for the first time as a fully continuous and standalone story, the epic tale of The Children of Húrin will reunite fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, dragons and Dwarves, and the rich landscape and characters unique to Tolkien.

The Children of Húrin, begun in 1918, was one of three "Great Tales" J.R.R. Tolkien worked on throughout his life, though he never realized his ambition to see it published. Though familiar to many fans from extracts and references within other Tolkien books, it has long been assumed that the story would forever remain an "unfinished tale". Now reconstructed by Christopher Tolkien, painstakingly editing together the complete work from his father's many drafts, this book is the culmination of a tireless thirty-year endeavor by him to bring J.R.R. Tolkien's vast body of unpublished work to a wide audience.

Christopher Tolkien said: "It has seemed to me for a long time that there was a good case for presenting my father's long version of the legend of the Children of Húrin as an independent work, between its own covers, with a minimum of editorial presence, and above all in continuous narrative without gaps or interruptions, if this could be done without distortion or invention, despite the unfinished state in which he left some parts of it."

Having drawn the distinctive maps for the original The Lord of the Rings more than 50 years ago, Christopher has also created a detailed new map for this book. In addition, it will include a jacket and color paintings by Alan Lee, illustrator of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Centenary Edition and Oscar ® -winning designer of the film trilogy.

The Lord of the Rings was already acclaimed worldwide as the most popular book of the 20th Century before the blockbuster films in 2001-3 broke new ground and inspired millions more to read J.R.R. Tolkien's books -- an additional 50 million copies were sold, leaving new fans wanting more. The Children of Húrin will be published by HarperCollins UK in April 2007, and on the same day in the United
States by Houghton Mifflin.

The Deluxe Edition

Victoria Barnsley, CEO and Publisher of HarperCollins Publishers UK said: "This epic story of adventure, tragedy, fellowship and heroism stands as one of the finest expressions of J.R.R. Tolkien's skills as a storyteller. With a narrative as dramatic and powerful as anything contained within The Lord of the Rings , it can now be read and enjoyed as Tolkien originally intended, and will doubtless be a revelation for millions of fans around the world.'"

Janet Silver, Vice President and Publisher of Houghton Mifflin, said, "As J.R.R. Tolkien's original American publisher, dating back to The Hobbit, we are extremely proud to be bringing this project to Tolkien's devoted readership in the United States. Christopher Tolkien has done a great service in realizing his father's vision for The Children of Húrin."

An unabridged audio recording of The Children of Húrin read by Christopher Lee was released in November 2007. Lee spent five days in the studio recording the book for HarperCollins.[1] The audiobook also features Christopher Tolkien reading his preface and introduction to the story.